By Neil Barry
The Carib Beer and Friends of Cricket Heroes Cup first division two day compeitition continued yesterday with two enthralling matches in Georgetown.
Everest Cricket Club endured a torrid time on day one at Malteenoes Sports Club in a contest that holds value to both teams as both sides look to get their hands on the title.
Over at the Demerara Cricket Club (DCC), ground Transport Sports Club and Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC) are both searching for first inning’s honours as they look to redeem themselves after recent losses to Malteenoes and DCC respectively.
Everest Cricket Club were boosted by the return of West Indies Under 19 World Cup player Amir Khan, and national players Rajendra Chandrika and Chanderpaul Hemraj.
Their return, however, failed to pay dividends as Everest found themselves on the brink of defeat after day one.
GNIC batted first on another day blessed with good weather and compiled 9 for 379 with the stand out performance coming from Shawn DeSouza, who struck 140 with 11 fours and nine maximums.
Opener Marc Nicholson fell 20 runs short of a century. His innings of 80 included nine fours and five sixes while useful contributions came from Ranole Bourne (40), Collis Butts (27) and Orlando Fraser (26).
Ewert Samuels picked up 3 for 60 from 15 overs while Shae Chase chipped in with two wickets.
Transport Sports Club trail by 257 runs after reaching 3 for 122 by close of play. Sunil Singh made 24, Carl Rambarose 23, and Stephen Alves 24. However with two new batsmen at the crease GNIC will be the more optimistic side heading into day two. Fraser has two wickets so far.
At Thomas Lands, Malteenoes won the toss and bowled. Everest were immediately on the back foot when Carlos La Rose ran out Christopher Patadin with a direct hit from backward square and Chandrika was also run out by La Rose in a mix up with the non striker. Kellon Carmichael bowled Hemraj soon after to place Everest in further trouble. Carmichael and Seon Daniels then took care of the middle order before Steven Jacobs wrapped up the tail with two wickets for 14. Seon Daniels finished 2 for 33 and Carmicheal 3 for 40.
Imran Gassan and La Rose put on 61 for the first wicket for Malteenoes before Javed Rasheed, who made regular breakthroughs, struck.
Imran Hassan made 52 with 10 fours while Jacobs was lbw to Rasheed for 28 before Shaq Williams and Carmichael put on 36 for the eighth wicket as MSC extended the lead past 50. Carmichael eventually fell for 26 and the innings came to an end at 177 in 43.2 overs for a lead of 80. Rasheed finished with 4 for 40, Khan 3 for 53and Damian Vantull 2 for 36.
Everest started cautiously before Seon Daniels produced two good deliveries to dismiss Chandrika and Patadin in the same over. With Everest badly in need of a recovery no batsman was able to step up to the challenge and by close of play Everest had negated Malteenoes’ 80-run lead for the loss of eight wickets. After Hemraj perished lbw to Jacobs for nine only Khan reached double figures and he remained not out on 21. So far Daniels, Jacobs and Sankar have taken two wickets for MSC with the umpires calling stumps with Everest 8 for 80. Both games will resume at 9.30am today.
